We are doing an Around the World Night with our homeschool group. We have done these everywhere we have lived. Each family chooses a country to study, they prepare a report and a display board with information. On the night of the presentations you cook foods from your country and we get to eat our way around the world.  

This year we are doing Russia. There are 21 families giving presentations, so the time limit that mom gave everyone for speechs is 4 minutes. That means that me, Dylan & Devon each get 1 minute and 20 seconds to tell the things we thought were cool about Russia. We had to leave out a lot of good stuff to get our speeches down to that time, but we did it. If only we could all talk as fast as Mommy we could share a lot of information!! .

I get to go first and here is my speech:  

 Let’s plan a trip to MOTHER RUSSIA.  

First thing to do is check out our map. Russia is this huge country way up here in the northern hemisphere. It is actually the largest country in the world. Parts of Russia reach so far north that you can see the Northern Lights. The Northern lights are when solar particles collide with molecules in our atmosphere, the energy is released as light.

When packing for a trip to Russia, you should bring along some warm clothes! Parts of Russia are covered in snow for 10 months of the year with temperatures dropping to 30 degrees below Celsius!  Of course it is not always that cold in Russia and some parts reach the mid 40’s in summer.

Before landing in Russia it is a good idea to exchange dollars for Rubles. And you’ll need a lot of them. Moscow is currently the most expensive city in the world!! I’ll be brining along enough Rubles to buy a few Matryoshkas, the wooden nesting dolls that Russia is known for. They are made out of cured wood and painted by hand, with different designs from each region. Traditionally, there are 7 dolls per set but some go much higher.

Let’s hear what Dylan has to add:

I like to know what type of food I’ll be eating

Most Russian families go to the out door market daily to buy their fruits,  vegetables & meat.  Some well known foods come from Russia like caviar, stroganoff, vodka, Borscht, bilinis, and Australia’s favorite dessert, pavlova. During the winter months many families lack fresh fruits & vegetables, although that is improving all the time.     

I like to check out the wildlife

Besides it’s famous fur-bearing animals, I found this really cool fish that lives in the worlds deepest lake, Lake Baikal, which is home to over 1100 types of plants and 550 types of animals. The golomyanka, is a transparent fish that’s body is mostly fat & it lives about 1 ½ kilometers down, at night it comes to the surface to feed on plankton. If it stays up for too long & the sun comes out, the fat will melt and the fish will turn in to a blob of fat floating on the surface!

Here are a few interesting facts about Russians:

* They are very loyal to their friends, often friends were childhood playmates. Most likely from the USSR when you had to know who you could trust.

* It’s bad luck to shake hands over a threshold.

* If you accidentally step on someone’s toe, you have to have them step on yours also.

* Russians are very generous & they will go “all out” for guests putting on a wonderful meal, Be sure to not compliment anything in the house too much or the hostess may insist you take the thing with you when you leave.

* May 9- victory day- is a very important holiday to Russians. It is to remember their victory over Nazi Germany where Russia lost 20 million people, far more people than any other country. This may be when Babushkas (grandmothers) became so important- there were so many men killed that the women had to raise a generation.

What about you Devon?

[Russian] Hello my friends, how are you today?

Language: It’s always good to learn a little of the local language before you head off on an adventure. Russian is a hard language for us to learn because it is so different from the languages derived from Latin. The Russians use the Cyrillic alphabet. It was invented by a monk named Cyril who was sent to Moravia. Back then, Mass was conducted only in Latin, but the people of Moravia only spoke Slavonic; they were upset because they didn’t understand what was being said. So Mass started to be conducted in Slav. People had been trying for a long time to match an alphabet with the sounds of the Slavic language. Cyril invented just such an alphabet so the Moravians could read and understand God’s word.

Arts: Russians love the fine arts. From a young age they go to ballets, museums, concerts & theatres. Russians take art very seriously. And because of strict training regimes they excel in music, ballet, and certain sporting exhibitions- namely ice skating and gymnastics.

Govt: At first Russia was ruled by local princes. Then came the Mongols, who conquered Russia, the Mongol Khans ruled for 145 years until Prince Dmitri stood up to them. Russia was again ruled by princes for a time, until a Prince known as Ivan the Terrible called himself Tsar after the Russian word for Caesar. Tsars ruled until the Russian revolution took place in 1917 and the Communist era began. Communist ruled until the U.S.S.R. collapsed due to a reformation in the system. That’s when Russia declared independence and elected her first President, Vladimir Putin.

We enjoyed learning more about Russia and we hope you did too.